This past Sunday Gotham Wines & Liquors held its 7th Annual Wine tasting at the Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan. They had hundreds of wines for every taste and every price range. Under the expertise of Costas and Noah the selections exceeded most expectations. In fact they proved, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a wine need not be expensive to be good.

A small fraction of the hundreds of bottles...

There was a time when kosher wine choices in the US boiled down to Kedem‘s Extra Sweet Malaga or Extra Sweet Concord, those days – thankfully – are long past. Today Kedem, through its various labels, is classed among the world’s top wineries. Its 2006 Generation VIII (Cabernet Sauvignon) is, by any standard a superb wine that just happens to be kosher.

Chateau Guiraud Sauterne 2001 and the Chateau Piada Sauterne 2001 are both superb examples (at different price points, though both are on the higher end) of how seriously wineries around the world now take the kosher consumer. These wines are the result of an evolved kosher palate and they represent a tacit recognition, that kosher now represents, unabashedly, a major new market ready for the world’s best producers.

All the above, however, does not mean you can’t find superb choices at more down to earth price points. There were wines here from almost every corner of the planet, with price points starting under $10.00. You like sweet dessert wines? You prefer a dry wine? Semi sweet? Semi dry? Red? White? Rosé? A specific grape? From Italy’s Borgo Reale Montepulciano D’Abruzzo 2008, their Chianti Riserva 2005, or their Primitivo 2008, to Israel’s Recanati with selections like their Chardonay 2007, Cabernet Blanc 2006, etc., etc., etc. all were represented

All in all, a tasting to remember. And… Gotham Wines & Liquors (2517 Broadway; New York, NY 10025; Telephone: 212.932.0990) has the best prices in town!